"NewsWrap"
for the week ending July 22, 2006
(As broadcast on "This Way Out" program #956, distributed 7-24-06)
[Written by Greg Gordon, with thanks to Graham Underhill, Bill Kelley, and 
Rex Wockner]


  There's been another casualty of the Middle East crisis.  Police officials 
denied a parade permit this week to Jerusalem Open House, the main organizers 
of the WorldPride Festival, scheduled for August 6th through 12th in the holy 
city.  They say that they're unable to assure a safe environment for the march 
because of ongoing hostilities in the region and the excessive stress it puts 
on police staffing.
A published statement by Open House co-chair Hagai El-Ad said "We feel it 
would be neither responsible nor appropriate to hold the march until such time 
that circumstances allow for a safe and peaceful gathering for all."  But he 
said that a "powerful" event to replace the parade is in the works.  While he 
wouldn't provide details, El-Ad told widely syndicated gay journalist Rex Wockner 
that, "The alternative action in Jerusalem will focus on expressing our 
outrage at the ongoing violence and incitement in the name of religion against our 
community."
Among the cultural aspects of the WorldPride week that are still scheduled 
are a Multi-faith LGBT Clergy Conference, an outdoor festival, Human Rights Day, 
Health Day, International Youth conference, and a film festival.
The event, staged in a different world city every four years, was to have 
been held in Jerusalem last year around this time, but it was postponed due to 
the Israeli pullout from Gaza.
This year's WorldPride festival -- especially the parade -- has been under 
fire from conservative religious groups from both within and outside Israel, 
including Muslims, Jews and -- especially from the U.S. -- fundamentalist 
Christians.
Late this week the head of Eda Haredit, an extreme Orthodox Jewish group, 
blamed WorldPride for the ongoing attacks on Israel by the extremist Islamic 
group Hezbollah.  "We have not protested enough against this parade of 
abomination," said Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, "and therefore we have received this warning."


  Citing security concerns, city officials in Riga this week banned a Pride 
march in the Latvian capital that had been scheduled for July 22nd.  Organizers 
said they were disappointed but that they would obey the ban, deciding to 
hold a conference later that day at a Riga hotel.  But hundreds of protestors 
chanted anti-gay slogans and hurled eggs and bags of feces at about 50 LGBT 
rights supporters as they left a church service in support of sexual minorities 
earlier in the day.  Dutch European parliamentarian Sophie Int'Veld was among 
several international supporters at the church service who were victimized by the 
assault.  The Reverend Maris Sants, co-organizer of the Pride event, told 
"Reuters" that security police had been informed about the church service but 
failed to provide protection.  Anglican Latvian-American pastor Juris Calitis, 
who led the service, said he, too, was pelted by waste.  He accused Latvian 
churches of stirring up anti-gay sentiment in the Baltic country.  Five people 
were reportedly detained later in connection with the incident.
Latvia, a new member of the European Union, is sure to come under renewed 
fire for the Pride assaults.  It has thus far failed to enact anti-discrimination 
legislation to protect gays and lesbians, a requirement for E.U. membership.  
At a news conference, Spanish European Parliament member Raul Romeva said the 
European Union was founded on equal rights and freedom for all.  "We are 
asking for more respect, including respect for our sexual orientation," he said.  
Outside, some 80 protesters gathered to shout derogatory names at people 
representing Pride organizers.  A German tourist, Lothar Kittstein, said he was 
shocked by the protesters, many of whom were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with 
sexually explicit anti-gay messages.  "I've never seen something like this," he 
told the "Associated Press".  "It's like the Middle Ages," he said.


  In happier Pride news, an estimated 150,000 people turned out for Berlin's 
colorful Christopher Street Day parade on July 22nd, as several dozen floats 
carrying dancers, some in feathered, rainbow costumes, others wearing almost 
nothing at all, wove through the heart of the city.  Berlin's openly gay mayor 
Klaus Wowereit praised the peaceful party mood, saying that it was a "true 
chance to really fight for tolerance."


  And about 300 people marched in the first-ever Pride parade in Porto, 
Portugal on July 8th.  The city, Portugal's second largest, has had pride events 
since 2001, but never a parade.
The march started at the location where a transgender woman, "Gisberta," was 
killed this year, then proceeded through the narrow streets of the old city to 
a rally point in a central square near City Hall.
In February, "Gisberta" was beaten, stoned, stomped, burned and sexually 
assaulted with a stick for two days, then thrown alive into a deep pit at the 
abandoned building where she lived.  Fourteen boys admitted involvement in the 
crime.  Their trial, closed to the public, is under way.


  The hangings of two gay teenagers in Iran on July 19th last year, with its 
gruesome photos widely distributed online, were remembered this week in cities 
around the world.  While the official line from Tehran was that the two young 
men had raped a 13-year-old boy, sources inside Iran said their real crime 
was consensual homosexual activity with each other, and that the rape charge was 
complete fiction.
David Allison of the group Outrage! in London called the teens' painful 
deaths "absolutely abhorrent."  "To execute people simply because they are gay or 
have had gay sex just isn't acceptable in the 21st century," he said.
In a letter to the UN, the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization demanded that 
"a ban be placed on the execution of homosexuals and legal protection be 
provided to them in Iran."
According to various international human right groups, up to 4,000 gay, 
lesbian and transgender Iranians have been put to death during the past 27 years of 
Islamic rule because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Protests, vigils, and other events to memorialize the teen executions and 
call for changes in Iran were scheduled on the July 19th one year anniversary in 
Toronto, Vancouver, Dublin, Mexico City, Milan, Gloucester, Warsaw, London, 
Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Marseille, Moscow, Vienna, New York 
City, Chicago, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, 
Salt Lake City, Provincetown, Washington, DC; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Sioux Falls, 
South Dakota.


  Zimbabwe has banned any public expression of same gender love.  The 
government of rabidly anti-queer dictator Robert Mugabe has made it a criminal 
offense for two people of the same gender to hold hands, hug, or kiss.  The new 
"sexual deviancy" law is one of 15 additions to Zimbabwe's criminal code quietly 
passed in Parliament last week.  The revised law expands the definition of 
sodomy to now include any behavior "involving contact between two males that would 
be regarded by a reasonable person as an indecent act".
Critics charge that the latest anti-queer laws are an attempt by Mugabe to 
further scapegoat lesbians and gay men and divert attention from the horrible 
economic conditions in his country.  The 82-year old Mugabe earlier this year cal
led homosexuality "a white disease."  "Leave whites to do that," he said.


  But the South Pacific island nation of Fiji has apparently stopped 
prosecuting consensual gay sex.  The penal code there outlaws sodomy, punishable by up 
to 15 years in prison.  Lesbians are not mentioned.  It wasn't clear if any 
laws have been formally changed, but the Fijian High Commissioner last week 
confirmed what were called "unofficial policy changes" that men engaging in 
consensual gay sex will no longer be arrested.
Changing cultural attitudes may take a while, however.  Last year an 
Australian gay tourist and a local Fijian were given 2-year prison terms for "illegal 
gay sex."  The magistrate who sentenced them said their actions would make 
"any decent person vomit".  They were released after intense international 
pressure.


  And finally, the so-called Federal Marriage Amendment was defeated yet 
again in the U.S. House of Representatives this week.  The vote to add a ban on 
same gender marriage to the U.S. Constitution, vocally supported by President 
George W. Bush, was 236-to-187.  That fell 46 votes short of the two-thirds 
majority needed.  Most Republican lawmakers voted for it and most Democrats 
against.  The proposal failed again -- and again along mostly party lines -- last 
month in the Senate.
Critics claim that the Republican leadership knew it didn't have the votes it 
needed, but resurrected the issue during this election year, as it's done in 
the past, to rally religious conservatives.  According to a June poll by the 
Pew Research Center, 55 percent of Americans oppose same gender marriage, down 
from 60 percent in August 2004.  The survey also found that Americans almost 
universally rank many issues as more important, including the economy, 
terrorism, health care and education.
         = Marriage Downs and Ups mini-feature =
There was both sad and happy queer couples news this week.
The landmark lawsuit in their name led to equal marriage rights in 
Massachusetts, but Julie and Hillary Goodridge have separated.  The women "are amicably 
living apart," according to their spokesperson, Mary Breslauer, who added that 
"they are no longer in the public eye, and request that their privacy be 
respected."  She declined to comment on how long the couple has been separated or 
whether they plan to divorce.
But Darren Hayes, the former lead singer of Australian pop group Savage 
Garden, has civilly united in a London ceremony with his male partner of two years, 
Richard Cullen.  Savage Garden sold more than 20 million albums worldwide in 
the 5 years before the band split up in 2001.  Hayes announced on his Web site 
this week that he'd married Cullen on June 19th under the U.K.'s civil 
partnership law.
"I'm proud of who I am," he writes now on his Web site, "and after what felt 
like an eternity, I'm finally in a place where my heart is secure and 
content."  He's dedicated his new single, "So Beautiful," to Cullen. [music up for 
ca.:30/fades out]